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The Space Between Us (film)
| screenplay = Allan Loeb | story = | starring = | music = Andrew Lockington | cinematography = Barry Peterson | editing = David Moritz | studio = | distributor = STXfilms | released = | runtime = 121 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $30 million | gross = $14.8 million }} The Space Between Us is a 2017 American romantic science fiction film directed by Peter Chelsom and written by Allan Loeb, from a story by Stewart Schill, Richard Barton Lewis and Loeb. The film stars Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, and Carla Gugino, and follows a teenage boy, born on Mars, who travels to Earth. Principal photography began on September 14, 2015, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The film was released on February 3, 2017 by STXfilms. It received negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing $14.8 million against its $30 million budget. Plot In the near future, Nathaniel Shepard, CEO of Genesis, launches the first ever mission to colonize Mars. During the journey, the lead astronaut, Sarah Elliot, discovers that she is pregnant. Shortly after landing, she dies from eclampsia while giving birth to the first human born on Mars. The father of the child is unknown. In a dilemma, Nathaniel eventually decides to keep the child on Mars as a secret, to avoid a PR disaster for his company and also keep the child safe. Sixteen years later, Sarah's son, Gardner Elliot, has grown up into an inquisitive, highly intelligent boy who has only ever met 14 people in his very unconventional upbringing. One day, in order to find out more about his mother, he hacks into Centaur, a robot he helped build, to gain access to the ship's storage. There, he retrieves his mother's items. Among them are a wedding ring and a USB drive, from which he plays a video of her and a man in a beach house. Convinced that the man is his father, he becomes determined to find him. Gardner logs on to an Internet chatroom, where he has struck up an online relationship with Tulsa, a street smart girl from Colorado who is constantly being shuffled from one foster home to the next. Under the guise of being confined to a penthouse due to osteogenesis imperfecta, they discuss their plans for the future. Gardner promises to come see her someday. He then watches the German language film, Wings of Desire, where an angel falls to Earth. His mother figure, astronaut Kendra Wyndham, video calls Nathaniel and Genesis director Tom Chen to inform them of Gardner's extraordinary intelligence and to beg them to allow him to go to Earth. Nathaniel refuses, as Gardner would have to undergo a highly risky surgery to increase his bone density and then train to adapt to Earth's atmospheric pressure. Gardner undergoes the surgery anyway and after training, he, Kendra and some other astronauts board a space shuttle for Earth. On the day of the space shuttle's arrival, Nathaniel discovers that Gardner is on board. He angrily confronts Tom, who hid this from him. Despite his anger, Nathaniel visits Gardner, who is being quarantined in NASA while undergoing medical tests to determine whether he is fit for life on Earth. After a visit from Kendra, Gardner manages to discover that he is not fit for life on Earth. Upset, he stages a daring escape and hitches a ride to find Tulsa. Upon seeing him, Tulsa hits him as she is upset at Gardner for "ghosting" her for 7 months. However, she forgives him and he convinces her to help him find his father. They stop by her house to get supplies for the journey, but are found by Nathaniel and Kendra. While trying to convince him to return to NASA, Gardner angrily confronts Kendra with her own admission of not wanting children and escapes with Tulsa on an old plane which her foster father was working on. The plane abruptly loses oil pressure while still in the sky. Tulsa manages to crash-land the plane into an old, abandoned barn, causing a fiery explosion. They escape safely to a diner where they determine the location of the shaman who married Gardner's parents, Shaman Neka. Believing that Gardner has died, a grieving Nathaniel and Kendra let out their rage at one another. After discovering that no bodies were found in the wreckage, they receive some devastating news - Gardner's body contains dangerously high levels of troponin, meaning that he has an enlarged heart. His heart is unable to stand Earth's atmospheric pressure and so Gardner must be returned to Mars immediately if he is to survive. The search is resumed with renewed fervor and they discover CCTV footage of Gardner and Tulsa in a supermarket parking lot, where they have bought clothes and supplies for the journey. During the journey, Gardner tells Tulsa the truth - that he was born and raised on Mars. Unwilling to accept the truth, she forces him out of the car but forgives him once he promises never to lie to her again, although she still does not believe him. At night, they camp out under the stars, where they make love. In the morning, they are discovered by a follower of Shaman Neka and are brought to him. He agrees to help them. Gardner's nose starts bleeding, a fact he conceals while Tulsa accesses the records to get the location of the beach house, which is in Summerland, California. Before they begin their journey, they make a detour to Las Vegas. Gardner's nose starts to bleed again and he collapses and is taken to a hospital. After seeing the carbon tubes in his bones on the results of an X-ray at the hospital, Tulsa tells Gardner she now believes he was born on Mars, but plans to leave him in the hospital, before foster care can come, as he is too sick to continue their journey. Gardner reveals that he knows he won't last on Earth anymore and all he wants is to meet his father before he dies. Tulsa gives in and helps him escape. They steal a car and drive to the beach house. There, they meet the man from the video, who reveals that he is not Sarah Elliot's husband, but her own brother. However, he thinks that the two are lying to him. Gardner runs down to the sea, where he tells Tulsa that this is where he wants to die. He collapses. Tulsa tries frantically to drag him to the shore, but he is too heavy for her. Nathaniel and Kendra arrive just in time to save him. After Nathaniel performs CPR on him, Gardner asks him about his mother Sarah and reveals that he knows that Nathaniel is his real father. Nathaniel, Kendra and Tulsa rush Gardner to a Dream Chaser. They plan to launch into the stratosphere to stabilize him. When that proves to not be enough, a desperate Nathaniel takes control and launches into outer space. Free of Earth's gravity, Gardner is revived. Soon, Gardner boards a space shuttle to Mars. Tulsa and Gardner have an emotional parting. Kendra, who is staying on Earth because she is retiring from NASA, adopts Tulsa. Determined to join Gardner on Mars, Tulsa joins Kendra's training program. Back on Mars, with his father Nathaniel, Gardner is glad to be home. Cast * Gary Oldman as Nathaniel Shepherd, Sarah’s love interest and Gardner’s father * Asa Butterfield as Gardner Elliot, Nathaniel and Sarah’s son / The Narrator * Carla Gugino as Kendra Wyndham * Britt Robertson as Tulsa Gardners' love interest * B. D. Wong as Genesis Director Tom Chen * Janet Montgomery as Sarah Elliot, Gardner’s mother and Nathaniel’s love interest * Trey Tucker as Harrison Lane * Scott Takeda as Dr. Gary Loh * Adande Thorne as Scott Hubbard * Colin Egglesfield as Sarah's brother * Gil Birmingham as Shaman Neka * Logan Paul as Roger * Saarh Minnich as reporter * Ryan Jason Cook as Control Room technician * Lauren Myers as Alice Myers * Morse Bicknell as NASA executive * Beth Bailey as NASA Chief Director * Chuck Woodruff as Tim Janis * Christen Rakes as maid * Bruce Macintosh as NASA scientist * David House as Roland * Esodie Geiger as Mrs. Tupelo * Charles Arnone as mechanic * Jacob Browne as New Mexico State policeman * Jenny Gabrille as Havasupai woman * Bernardo Saracino as pilot * Eli Goodman as ER doctor * Ramona King as reception nurse * Eb Lottitmer as Air Force Colonel * Ramsey Scotte as foster care worker Production In 1999, Universal Pictures and Mike Lobell Productions acquired a screenplay, then titled Mainland, about a rebellious teen born on the moon who desired to come to the earth but whose physiology, it was feared, would not be able to take the translation. After failed rewrites by Allison Burnett (Autumn in New York), the project was placed in turnaround, as Lobell left Universal for a deal at Castle Rock Entertainment. The project remained unproduced for over a decade. On March 13, 2014, Hollywood industry website The Tracking Board revealed that a science fiction-adventure film titled Out of This World was in development at Relativity Media, scripted by Allan Loeb. Later in August 2014, it was reported that Peter Chelsom, who had previously directed Hector and the Search for Happiness for Relativity, was hired to direct the film, while Relativity would produce and distribute. Southpaw Entertainment's Richard B. Lewis was attached to produce the film, and also received a "story by" credit. On February 2, 2015, Asa Butterfield was tapped to play the lead character in the film, a teen who was raised on Mars, and who falls in love with a girl on Earth he has been communicating with. Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay rewrote the screenplay. On July 13, 2015, it was announced that Relativity was selling the project to STX Entertainment, in order to reach an agreement with its creditors and avoid having to file for bankruptcy. STX produced and distributed the film. On July 31, 2015, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, and Britt Robertson joined the cast of the then-untitled film. Robertson would play the female lead, a teen girl from Colorado. On September 8, 2015, it was announced that the title of the film would be The Space Between Us, and B. D. Wong and Janet Montgomery were added to the cast. On September 30, 2015, Trey Tucker joined the film to play an astronaut, and on October 23, 2015, Scott Takeda was cast to play a doctor in the film. Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson have a seven-year age gap between them, which caused controversy, but in an interview Robertson explains that the age difference helped with the dynamic of the relationship between Tulsa and Gardner. "I don’t think Tulsa is really a teenager. She’s had to be an adult for a really long time. She’s had to take care of herself. She’s had to figure out where she’s going to live, and pay her mortgage or gas. She thinks like an adult. There’s this dynamic where she’s almost parenting him in some ways. There’s this very specific kind of thing where she’s teaching him about the world (saying), “Get it together, these are people. Why are you doing it this way? Why aren’t you being human? (Our age difference) I think really helps the dynamic. It’s not something I really pay attention to."http://screenpicks.com/2017/02/interviews-asa-butterfield-britt-robertson-space-us/ Principal photography on the film began on September 14, 2015, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Andrew Lockington composed the film's score, which was released through Sony Music Entertainment. Release In August 2015, STX Entertainment scheduled the film to be released on July 29, 2016. The release date was later switched with STX's other release, Bad Moms, and was moved its release date later to August 19, 2016. However, Kubo and the Two Strings, ''Ben-Hur, and ''War Dogs were all slated for August 19, 2016 and STX Entertainment moved its release date later to December 21, 2016, allowing more time for work on the visual effects. The film's release date was later moved to December 16, 2016, and finally STX Entertainment moved its release date later to February 3, 2017. Box office The Space Between Us grossed $7.9 million in the United States and Canada and $6.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $14.8 million, against a production budget of $30 million. In North America, The Space Between Us was released alongside Rings and The Comedian, and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,812 theaters during its opening weekend. The film ended up grossing $1.4 million on its first day and $3.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing well below expectations, and 7th at the box office. In its third weekend the film grossed $260,000 after being pulled from 2,441 theaters (dropping 84.6% to 331), marking the 6th biggest theater drop in history. Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on 118 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Space Between Us strands its star-crossed young lovers in a mind-numbingly vast expanse of shameless cheese that will send all but the most forgiving viewers eye-rolling for the exits." On Metacritic, the film holds a score 33 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "C," calling it a "guileless and good-natured sci-fi love story". Kevin Maher gave a scathing review in The Times, writing that the film is "notable only for some horrendously bad science and a career-low performance from Gary Oldman". Accolades See also * List of films set on Mars References External links * * Category:2017 films Category:2010s adventure films Category:2010s romance films Category:2010s science fiction films Category:American films Category:Films directed by Peter Chelsom Category:Films shot in New Mexico Category:Science fiction adventure films Category:American science fiction films Category:American space adventure films Category:American teen romance films Category:STX Entertainment films Category:Huayi Brothers films Category:Films about NASA Category:Films about adoption Category:Films about orphans Category:Films about space hazards Category:Films set in Florida Category:Films set in California Category:Films set in Colorado Category:Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Category:Films set in 2018 Category:Films set in 2036 Category:Mars in film Category:Film scores by Andrew Lockington